Playstation Spring Showcase

Every time Sony has some sort of event going on in Toronto, I always try my best to attend because you get personal hands on time with amazing games that are yet to hit store shelves. This year, Sony’s theme was ‘Playstation <3 Canada’ where most of the games that were shown were being made by Canadian developers. Most of the games I played were extremely fun and I can’t wait to get my hands on the final copy of these games when they release this spring and summer.

Soundshapes

I’m a huge fan of games that blend music with gameplay. Soundshapes for the Playstation Vita is something I can’t wait to play when it comes out. The animation is really smooth and looks great on the Vita.

As you make your way through a level, your actions will make small pieces of music that will continue to build as you progress. It’s really fun to make music within a video game and I think more developers should explore it.

Lights! Camera! Party!

Looking at the crowd gathering around the people currently playing a round, I instantly saw that it was a different twist on party games. The first thing that came to mind was that it kind of had a Mario Party vibe, yet it didn’t have a giant board game to walk around and had no die to roll.

Being a Playstation Move title, I can definitely see people making good use of the controller which needs a little more titles under its belt. There were a lot of different mini-games to play in the game’s current build and most of the game’s charm was because of the humorous touchesin those mini-games; they used crazy little monkeys that had you doing everything from beating your chest using the move controller to painting an outhouse door to give the monkey a little bit of privacy as he sits on the toilet shouting at you. I laughed. Things like these make game party games worth playing.

Retro City Rampage

First of all, I have to say that this 8-bit open world game looks amazing on the Vita.

As soon as the Vita was given to me I was on a bus in the game. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, so I drove around the area until I accidentally hit a few pedestrians moments later. It gave me a lot of points so I decided to cause a little bit more mayhem by driving the school bus through a park, killing everyone I saw, which gave me a chain combo which brought a smile to my face. What happened next was hilarious. A few police cars started chasing me around the city but I didn’t let that stop me. I quickly did a U-turn and smashed into three of the police cruisers following me. I figured out how to get out the bus and things just got better. Apparently I was equipped with a bazooka so I did what anyone else would (in a game of course) and I blew them to smithereens until the game told me I had acquired a silver metal.

Papo & Yo

I’ll admit that I haven’t heard a lot about this game but, after just watching someone play it for three minutes, I can’t wait to play it in the comfort of my own home. I have to say from what I saw in the demo that this game is incredibly unique. In Papo & Yo, a PSN exclusive, you take control of a young boy adventuring through the streets of South America solving puzzles to continue. My favourite part of the game was when the guy who was playing the demo wasn’t sure what he was doing or what he was supposed to do and there was a box on the floor in-game that said “hint.” Obviously I thought it would bring up some sort of menu or text would appear on screen giving you a little bump to get the puzzle completed, but nope, none of the above. The character put the box over his head and there were hand drawn clues in the box. I thought it was funny and really creative. You could even move the box around to get more clues and I just loved that.

Dyad

Dyad was the second musical game at the showcase. I was excited because it was the only game that had some crazy visuals that were always flashing, moving, and spinning. At first I wasn’t sure what the object of the game was, but after they explained it to me, it was pie. The only way to move through the level was to grab flashing lights to pull yourself along. On your own you don’t move at all and trying to pull on enemies will slow you down.

Sorcery

Sony is finally making a game that will put the Move controller to good use with what seems to be a pretty big title. I didn’t have enough time to try it myself but from what I saw there is going to be a lot of mixing different spells together to make more powerful ones such as fire. You can also swing your arm in the air to make whirlwinds to send at your enemies. This game is looking a lot better than what it used to look like when I saw it around E3 2011. They’ve added a lot more detail. I do think, however, that this game isn’t exactly for people looking for an approachable pick up and play Move title. I’m sure a game of this kind is definitely going to need to have a training mode. Either way, if you want to make good use of your Move controller, Sorcery is it.